Ahmedabad: Mumbai Police recall a rather challenging sextortion case involving a 19-year-old offender from Gujarat who had become a terror for women social media users, some of whom even contemplated suicide.
In July 2022, several panic-stricken women from Antop Hill area of Mumbai approached the local police to save them from “public shaming” as someone had made obscene video clips by morphing the display pictures on their social media accounts. This person would threaten to circulate the videos and demand Rs 500 to Rs 4,000 to delete them.
Investigating sleuths of Antop Hill police zeroed in on a Class 10 drop out, a 19-year-old man who worked at a surgical mask manufacturing unit in Gandhinagar. According to Mumbai and Gandhinagar police, he was identified as Aditya Prashant who had allegedly targeted 39 women. While many of his victims refrained from speaking up, 22 women came forward and registered FIRs. Senior inspector Nasir Kulkarni of Antop Hill police station said that some of those women were on the verge of committing suicide.
“After he entered a community-based social media group, he began targeting the women users by morphing their DP pictures and making deepfake videos,” said Kulkarni. A chargesheet has been filed and Prashant is out on bail now. Kulkarni said that Prashant was booked under IPC Section 67A of the IT Act (punishment for publishing or transmitting sexually explicit acts, etc.)
In July 2022, several panic-stricken women from Antop Hill area of Mumbai approached the local police to save them from “public shaming” as someone had made obscene video clips by morphing the display pictures on their social media accounts. This person would threaten to circulate the videos and demand Rs 500 to Rs 4,000 to delete them.
Investigating sleuths of Antop Hill police zeroed in on a Class 10 drop out, a 19-year-old man who worked at a surgical mask manufacturing unit in Gandhinagar. According to Mumbai and Gandhinagar police, he was identified as Aditya Prashant who had allegedly targeted 39 women. While many of his victims refrained from speaking up, 22 women came forward and registered FIRs. Senior inspector Nasir Kulkarni of Antop Hill police station said that some of those women were on the verge of committing suicide.
“After he entered a community-based social media group, he began targeting the women users by morphing their DP pictures and making deepfake videos,” said Kulkarni. A chargesheet has been filed and Prashant is out on bail now. Kulkarni said that Prashant was booked under IPC Section 67A of the IT Act (punishment for publishing or transmitting sexually explicit acts, etc.)
